About the Orthoptera Species File

The Orthoptera Species File is a website and a database created specifically to
provide a source of taxonomic information for researchers and others working on
Orthoptera, and to provide software useful for other taxonomic groups. The
underlying structure of the website and database has now been extracted from the
Orthoptera application and is available for use in other taxonomic groups. This
underlying structure is called the Species File Software. Information about
the design and use of SFS may be found at http://Software.SpeciesFile.org.

This page covers the goals and objectives, justification, history, and future plans
for the OSF database and website.
Statistics about the quantity of data and information about
participating in work on the database are on separate pages.

The core purpose of the Orthoptera Species File (OSF) is to provide a resource
that makes taxonomic research on Orthoptera more efficient. This has been
accomplished, but it requires continual maintenance to add results of new research,
to fix errors, and to add new features. Work has been extended to serve other
users, especially persons who want to identify specimens and to learn more about
specific taxa.

Information should be available over the Internet in user-friendly formats that
can vary according to the requirements and interests of specific users. Users
include both individuals using browsers and organizations that import data for large-scale
data aggregation.

Participation by many members of the Orthopterists' Society is an important objective.
This adds to the reputation and reliability of OSF. It requires that persons
at remote locations be able to edit the database over the Internet with a user-friendly
interface and comply with OSF's editorial policy.

The database must be highly normalized to provide efficient execution and internally
consistent data.

In the long run, the greatest cost for maintaining OSF will be data input and quality
assurance. This justifies devoting significant resources to the development
of software that makes data input as efficient as possible and does extensive quality
checking of data as it is being entered.

The database encompasses nomenclature, images, sound recordings, keys, and specimen
data. Integration of all these in a single database reduces the difficulty
of keeping other components current with changes in taxon names and concepts.
However, the scope does not include work better handled by software specifically
designed for managing collections and observations.

OSF has served as the test case for the Species File Software. Orthoptera is particularly well
suited as a test case for databases of this type because the group has a long history
with many nomenclatural tangles and many evolutionary relationships still needing
resolution. This provides a useful contrast with other test cases where the
taxonomy is so well known that database development focuses on details beyond the
reach of most taxonomic groups. Orthoptera is large enough that successful
peformance will demonstrate the feasibility of large-scale implementation that will
help raise less studied groups toward standards applied to well studied groups.
SFS is now ready to be applied to other organisms subject to the International
Code of Zoological Nomenclature.

While the purpose of the OSF database is to provide taxonomic information on Orthoptera
and is geared toward the working taxonomist or systematist, the value of OSF is
not limited to these researchers. Rather, the literature citations, keys,
images and other data in OSF reflect innovative approaches to describing and understanding
the world’s Orthoptera of potential interest and importance to researchers in many
fields. Additionally, the importance of Orthoptera in terrestrial ecosystems
throughout the world means there is information of value to resource managers, policy
makers, educators, and others concerned with biodiversity conservation. OSF
is continually enhancing the quality and delivery of taxonomic information on Orthopera
in response to changes in research practices and technology.

The database marks an important departure from past history of work on Orthoptera.
Numerous catalogues have been published over the years, although typically under
the leadership of a single person or institution. The task has grown along
with the increasing number of new taxa and references. Although the ecological
importance of Orthoptera has not diminished, funding and other resources available
through museums and other institutions are often limited. Computer technology
now permits the continuous enhancement of information resources, including the efficient
sharing and retrieval of detailed taxonomic information across time zones and hemispheres.
Sponsorship by the Othopterists’ Society facilitates the continuity of the database
among its growing community of collaborators.

Daniel Otte developed the initial version of the database for his personal use.
Most of the data came from the Zoological Record. Otte soon realized that
the amount of his data was sufficient that it should be published and made available
to others. The first volume of the Orthoptera Species File was published in
1994 to cover crickets (Grylloidea). Subsequent volumes continued through
volume eight in 2000 to complete all Orthoptera. Some of the work was supported
by a grant from the National Science
Foundation to Daniel Otte and Piotr Naskrecki (Award Number 9707776).
The collaboration between Otte and Naskrecki led to version one of the Orthoptera
Species File, first posted to the Internet on October 20, 1997. Naskrecki
and Otte also published a CD entitled An Illustrated Catalog of Orthoptera, Vol.
I. Tettigonioidea (Katydids or bush-crickets) in 1999.

David Eades recognized the value of the Orthoptera Species File and saw potential
for further development. He communicated with Otte and Naskrecki and submitted
a proposal to the Orthopterists' Society that formed the basis for version two of
the Orthoptera Species File. Data from the Tettigonioidea CD was imported
to a new database to demonstrate the feasibility and value of a more complex database
design. The new design provided cross checking of data in a way that called
attention to many errors. The editing portion was completely redone in a way
that identifies and prevents many errors as new data is entered and also greatly
reduces the number of changes that must be manually entered. The import of
Tettigonioidea data was completed in February 2001 with substantial duplication
of version one read-only functionality completed in June 2001. Import of all
data from previous versions of the Orthoptera Species File was completed in July
2002. The much more complex programming required for editing the data has
been developed gradually while the data was being imported. All essential
portions were completed in August 2001. A major rewrite improving the reliability
and moving to new software was completed in November 2003. New data based
on the Zoological Record was brought current through 2003 in September 2004.
Programming to support keys and specimen data was completed in 2005. Also
in 2005 Eades and Paul Brock initiated the Phasmida Species File using the software
from OSF.